IntroductionsHi all

New to forums so, I guess I need to find my way around a little. Anyway I was recently made redundant and the company car needed to go back leaving me without a vehicle.

I ran a number of Honda's previously. Years ago a vtech accord i put 250k miles on it without much trouble. I also had a CR-V a few years ago as a company car and enjoyed this. So a big Honda fan.

So with my current employment position I wanted reliability, good MPG, and something good to drive at a reasonable price so I bought a Honda Accord I-CTDI on a 2006 plate, it runs well comes with 116k on the clock looks well for age and millage. But I need to try and maintain it myself. I am a technical person but not a motor mechanic, I'm sure you get the picture. I also read from the posts that the pre I-DTEC's can be troublesome so maybe not such a wise purchase?

I do have particular an interest in tuning in particular connecting to the ECU's and looking at the way the engine management systems is running on the vehicle I would like to think I will learn enough to implement a remap in the future but I don't jump in with two feet and would be very cautious and structured in anything I ever consider doing to the existing code.

To this end I just bought a obd2 wifi interface which I am using with free or low cost software running on my ipad iPhone or pc, like I said I'm new to this so I am learning as I go along I'm not going to remap anything until I have learnt mountains I will then likely just use a pre written files.

Any links information or discussions will be useful, on another mater I would like to get hold of a workshop manual
for my particular car. Be it in paper or in file format.

Anyway thank you for taking the time to read my long intro..
I look forward to many discussions.

Welcome to AOC and congrats on your new purchase, there are loads of DIY guides for oil change,fuel filter change and other routine maintenance. Workshop manuals do come up on ebay (Genuine ones) or you can buy them at dealers they are expensive!

If you want to have a troublefree I-CTDI experience you will have to spend money and regularly and not to skimp on quality fuel,oil and genuine parts. If you can't do this or have a budget to stretch your car to the max then you will find yourself on the wrong side.

Oil changes at 6000 miles 0w-30
All genuine filters This is a must if you can't then I would suggest sell the car.

As for code reader there are loads of options cost is the deciding factor and the capabilities. Speedy is doing a thread on this and you can look up the Torque app with a bluetooth adapter.

Lastly
The facts about I-DTEC being troublesome are misguided and baseless , yes they do have DPF issues but they are self inflected not a fault of car. I would say the I-CTDI is more troublesome than the I-DTEC and the 7th Generation reliability is poorer when compared to the 8th Generation on the whole.

Thank you for you response, regular filters oil change cyles do seem paramout on diesels. I must admit 6k miles between oil changes does seem frequent. Just to put this into perspective I have worked in the electronics and semiconductor business for many years, typically I would do something around 30-40 k miles per year.

On that basis every two months requires an oil change. This does seem frequent for a modern car.... I can imagine many reps leaving this for 4-6 months prior to taking to a dealership for a re service.

But if that is the program so be it. I gues the millage I am doing at the moment 6k will be quite some Time. Do you recommend any particular brand or make? I guess if I move back into a sales engineering position with big miles I better find a good source for buying oil and filters! Especially if I keep the car initially.

I was reading about the frequent changes needed on the fuel filter. I must admit this does not look a job that brings tranquility and harmony, to be honest it looks a tough job. Without a pit to gain access from the underside of the vehicle. I also read you must always use original honda fuel filters. I guess it's a no brainer with the difficulty in implementing the replacment.

Also whats the thoughts about adding desel fuel system cleaners to the fuel. Is the general consensus that these are good? Im sure that some of these do offer a good job but I also suspect there are product out there that promise the world and deliver nothing other than a nice bottle and lots of false promises. Can you recommend the best I'm sure this is subjective, and two engineers will recommend differant products. I'm always interested in factual evidence rather than just believing the manufacturers write up.